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Show GREED, NOT LABOR'S FEE, DECLARED RESPONSIBLE FOR PRESENT HI COSTS WASHINGTON, May 7. A , study of profiteering in American industry, made under the auspices of the railway brotherhoods, was presented to the railroad labor board today 3n support of the railway rail-way workers' demands for higher pay and to i6futejjt.he charge that increased labor costs are responsible respon-sible for the- hlgt&cost of living. Prepared by W.5i$Ji.auck, former secretary ,of the war labor board, tblf study "sleeks to show that profiteering profi-teering In.-, industry is the fundamental funda-mental cause forhigh prices. It -gives many statistics to support-that support-that contention. Galling attention to the many war-made millionaires, the study conte'n.dathat thei increase in the wealthjo. tho wealthy is "an unanswerable" un-answerable" refutation to all attempts at-tempts Vp- charge labor with profi-tering. profi-tering. - "For.' if .jnvosted'iwealth gets a larger return," says he study, "the man who gives personal service or labor Is bound to get smaller proportion." pro-portion." r" t Of extraordinary increase in the price of sugar now amounting to 300 per cenjT, the study says, the increase in-hbor cost paii "by the 'conwineigk$1& "tfenD" The' result of advanced according to the .quoted reports of twelve companies, was pictured in the net profits of these concerns , which it was said rose from an average of $11,000,000 during the years 1912-1914 to 34,000,000 for the years 1916-191S, In tho meat packing industry where profits were said to have increased between 300 and 400 per cent, the labor item was shown so small tnat a wage increase of 100 per cent would add less than 5 per cent to the total cost of the meat The increase in price' between 1911 and 1918 was shown as eight times tho total cost and the 191S price represented 25 times the total to-tal labor item. Profits absorb approximately one-half tho retail price of certain kinds of cloth, the report declared, while the labor item amounts to from one-fourteenth to one twentieth twen-tieth of the price.. Similar rela- tions were pictured in tho manufacture manu-facture of men's garments. Shoes, according to the study, for the nrofiteer. The profit ietm furnished a splendid opportunity in 1914, it was charged, absorbed nearly one-half tho price paid, by the consumer, or nearly three j times tho total labor costs, while in 1917 the profit items amounted i to approximately three-fifths of j the total price and over five times tho total labor cost, 1 increases in the retail price of ! bituminous coal were shown at four times the increase in labor costs while the proportion of the proceeds of the industry received by the coal operator was show" as increased from 75 to 400 per cent. Profiteering did not stop with the armistice, the report declared, presenting figures to show that corporation profits in 1919 were 110 per cent over the pre-war average av-erage which means, the study added, that 12x profits wero more than double the average for the years 1912-1914. An average of $1,200 per family fam-ily of five during tho years 1916-191S 1916-191S was declared to bo-, probably a' highly conservative estimate pf , JctoialcosjoC corporate profi-.-leering; to the" consumer. Concluding his study, Mr. Lauck submitted the following general demands in the name of tho railroad rail-road workers: 1. Labor in general, and railroad rail-road labor in particular, must have wage increases proportionate to advances ir living costs. 2. In the present crises, and for all time to come, producers and middle men must be restrained from advancing prices in excess of increases in labor and material costs. 3. Producers and middlemen must refrain from including income in-come and excess profit taxes in their costs and passing them on to the consumer with an added profit 4. The principle of a living wage must be accepted and established estab-lished iA order that normal production pro-duction may he restored and in- creased production hoped for in all fields of industry. |